Havana: A Gargantuan Archaeological Site

An archaeological dig is not just a way to obtain artefacts and other material remnants, it is a scientific method for harvesting information, advancing knowledge and trying to reconstruct the cultures of former societies.

Pick in hand, the archaeologist delicately lifts stratified layers to identify traces of human intervention. The work is not simple; it requires physical and intellectual effort and countless hours of hard work to glimpse a historic conclusion, or at least a hypothesis, in a bone fragment or a piece of pottery.

In that daily struggle to uncover the origins of the city founded in 1519, the Archaeology Department of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana has been engaged since November 14, 1987. "Our investigations help to explain how the city was born and grew, the location of the first nuclei population, the adaptations made by the Spanish colonists to this area and how they exploited the medium in which they lived," said Roger Arrazcaeta Delgado, director of the Archaeology Department for more than a decade.

Another aim of this scientific centre has been providing support to the restoration of real estate. Many colonial buildings of Havana lack original architectural foundation plans or written memoirs. Archaeology allows the substantiation of a story implicit in the ancient walls of the structures. By studying the archaeological strata, Arrazcaeta Delgado insists, one can "read" the constructive evolution of a building from the basement to the roof and thus formulate a more comprehensive picture of the city...